Excuse the use of the opening line to the 1970’s Pilot hit, as I suspect anyone under the age of 60 will be chorusing “WHO?”. Google it, its quite a catchy number. As we have ended the opening month in very confused mood with slightly mixed feelings. The revolving door for transfers seems to be working one way only and results have been mixed.

The opening day of the year ended in a disaster of a performance against Wigan, still a Blues bogey side. I suspect the faithful had reached their lowest ebb. Personally, I regretted buying a ticket for the Blackburn cup tie coupled with £40 quid train fares. Add this to tickets for Luton I am looking for a refund!

What happens? I enjoy the best two performances of the season. Typical Blues I here you say. The point of this is that this January is actually one of the most successful opening months for 30 years. January 1st 1981 saw a John Gayle brace secure 3 points against Mansfield at Field Mill. The morning kick-off meant that it was the only Blues fixture in my 60 years of following them that was finished before I got up!

That was the last away game Blues have won on New Year’s Day. Since that year Blues have averaged less than three points in the 30 that have occurred since. With such a poor record of wins during this time it makes progress in the FA cup particularly difficult.

One January sticks out as the nightmare of nightmares. 2007 saw Blues top of the League by NINE points over Derby and 26 points lead over Sunderland who were below half way. Blues had decided to renew the pitch when a torrential downpour destroyed the new surface and the match against Leeds was off. Incredibly the following week the roof of the stand at the Walkers Stadium got blown off and the away fixture against Leicester fell by the wayside. So a defeat at Ipswich and at home to Southend left Steve Bruce’s team pointless. Having missed two important and tough fixtures in the disaster period worked in Blues favour as both rearranged fixtures were won in the more favourable months of March and April.

Blues’ form from February was better, but not outstanding. Derby failed to overhaul us by only 2 points, while Roy Keane’s Sunderland pipped us to the Title by two points. Inevitably we were not involved in any February Cup Ties.

So, lets get positive Bluenoses, the next Cup tie is at home in February and 6 points is way above our normal January haul. Have we had a better January? Well nothing comes close to 2011 with a massive 4-point haul, two FA Cup wins and a successful League Cup Semi Final.

Had we matched this year we would have stayed up!